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Activist Death Linked
To Jakarta Spies

Indonesian Intelligence
Is Accused of Poisoning
Human-Rights Leader

By

Timothy Mapes and

Puspa MadaniStaff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Updated June 27, 2005 12:01 a.m. ET

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Members of Indonesia's intelligence service appear to have been involved in the midair poisoning death of Indonesia's most prominent human-rights activist, Munir Said Thalib, according to members of a fact-finding commission that has examined the case at the behest of the country's president.

The finding, included in a report submitted to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Friday, seems likely to create problems for Indonesia's leader as he works to improve relations between Indonesia's armed forces and the U.S. military. Those ties have been strictly limited in recent years because of U.S. concerns about human-rights abuses by Indonesian forces in East Timor before the territory won its independence in 2002. Mr. Yudhoyono has said repeatedly since coming to power in October that he wants to remove remaining restrictions.

In September, Mr. Munir became sick aboard a Garuda Indonesia flight and died before reaching his destination, Amsterdam. An autopsy in the Netherlands found he had ingested a lethal dose of arsenic. Mr. Yudhoyono then appointed the fact-finding commission, staffed mainly by human-rights activists but headed by a police general. While the report wasn't publicly released, the head of the team that wrote it said the commission uncovered telephone records showing 26 calls between the telephone line of the deputy director of Indonesia's national intelligence agency, Badan Intelijen Nasional, better known by its initials BIN, and an off-duty Garuda pilot who is one of the main suspects in the case.

Police Brig. Gen. Marsudhi Hanafi said in an interview that the 26 calls were made between the office and cellphone numbers of BIN deputy director Maj. Gen. Muchdi Purwopranjono and numbers belonging to Garuda pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyatno. Mr. Pollycarpus has been in police custody since March and has been named as a suspect in Mr. Munir's murder.

It isn't known who participated in the calls or what was said, Gen. Hanafi said. Mr. Muchdi and Mr. Pollycarpus have denied making the calls cited by the commission, or even knowing each other. A spokesman for Mr. Yudhoyono said the president would discuss the report today with security officials and then announce a follow-up plan.